DIY Ms. Frizzle + Magic School Bus Costume

A normal fieldtrip? With the Frizz?! No way!

Seatbelts everyone!! It’s officially the 2025 Halloween costume season! I always look forward to making these costumes and dream up ideas all year long! Immediately after the previous Halloween season is over, I start brainstorming and thinking of fun new ideas for the next year! I have a HUGE list on my phone of ideas and am constantly adding more! I just wish I had enough time to make them all! haha

To be honest, this costume was not on the forefront of my mind for this year! I had another costume I really wanted to make, but was still trying to figure out how exactly I would be able to create it (it’s a bit tricky) when a friend of mine asked if we would ever do a Magic School Bus costume. This costume is WITHOUT A DOUBT the most requested costume I have ever gotten! People often suggest different redheaded characters for me to recreate, but I definitely feel like all the millennials have an affinity for Ms. Frizzle! I mean, is anything cooler to a school kid than a quirky teacher that encourages kids to think out of the box and take them on wild, out of this world (sometimes even to Pluto) fieldtrips?! So when a friend asked about this costume again, I finally decided it was time to give it a go!

If you are unfamiliar, The Magic School Bus was a show created in the 90’s that follows an eccentric science teacher and her students as they explore and learn about all kinds of scientific concepts in their shape-shifting school bus! The bus can shrink or expand depending on what is needed for the lesson of the day, but it is always guaranteed to be a wild and informative adventure! In other words, it was a really fun show that helped an entire generation learn all about the solar system, the human body, the ocean, and much more all through the lens of science!

Any and every one wanted a teacher just like Ms. Frizzle! She was kind, intelligent and very peculiar! And of course, we ALL wanted to board that magical bus!

In another life I would be a teacher just like Ms. Frizzle! I would dress to theme every single day, be unapologetically myself and help teach my students through curiosity and excitement! Only, my subject would be art, rather than science! Couldn’t you see me dressing up as Pablo Picasso while teaching my students about cubism?!

Liz Ard is Ms. Frizzle’s scaly companion! She is always onboard the bus for all of the student’s adventures, so of course I had to make sure she was a part of this costume!

Magic School Bus

SUPPLIES:

LARGE CARDBOARD BOXES (at least 2)
SILVER POSTERBOARD
MASKING TAPE
HOT GLUE GUN (and glue sticks)
SCISSORS
GESSO SPRAY PAINT
SPRAY PAINT (I used yellow for the bus, and orange for the flames)
ACRYLIC PAINT (I used blue, white, red and black)
PENCIL
RULER/YARD STICK
PAINT BRUSHES
RIBBON
DUCT TAPE

HOW TO:

1.) First you will have to determine just how big your bus will be. Sketch and then cut out two identical wide rectangles for the sides and two narrow rectangles for the front and back of the bus. I wanted to make my bus a little curved like the actual magical school bus is, so I cut an arch on the top of my narrow rectangles. Adhere all the pieces together with either hot glue, masking tape or both for extra strength. (like I did)
2.) Now that you have your general rectangular prism of the bus, you can add more details, like the hood, bumper, wheel well, lights, mirrors, etc. (see pictures below) These will also be constructed out of cardboard, hot glue and masking tape.
3.) After the base of the bus is constructed, spray paint it with your gesso spray paint. Cardboard is a very porous surface, and gesso helps act as a primer to help bond the spray paint to the cardboard without the cardboard absorbing all the paint. This is the first time I have used gesso in a cardboard project, and let me tell you – it is a game changer! After the gesso is dry, go ahead and spray paint the entire bus with your yellow spray paint. This will take several layers, make sure to allow each layer to completely dry.
4.) Now that you have a yellow bus, it is time to add all the details! Use some of your silver poster board to make your grill and bumper. And with your pencil, sketch out exactly where you would like to place all your windows and the doors.
5.) Now it’s time to add a little paint! Use red paint to paint your lights, blue paint to paint in all the windows and doors, black paint to paint the stripes on the side of the bus and don’t forget to paint the eyes!
6.) It is totally up to you if you would like to keep the look of the bus as is, but I wanted to make sure that the magic school bus was magical! So I added some wings and jet engines with flames to make it appear more as a spaceship bus!
7.) To finish off the look of the bus, you will just need to add some wheels! Cut out 4 circles from your cardboard, paint them and attach them with your hot glue gun!
8.) Lastly, to make it wearable, you will need to add some straps! I just used some duct tape and ribbon to create these!

Making all the little details for this bus was soooo much fun! Don’t get me wrong, it took a lot of work (about 2 days worth) but I loved trying to get the details just right! Truly crazy what a bit of craft supplies can do! In the words of Ms. Frizzle herself, “take chances, make mistakes, get messy!”

Ms. Frizzle

HOW TO:

1.) The dress – I was debating whether or not to create my very own unique Ms. Frizzle dress or just order one. I ended up deciding to order a dress rather than make my own because I found a dress I really liked online, and I was already spending so much time making the bus costume that I honestly thought I may run out of time to finish the dress. Here is a link to the dress I got!
2.) The earrings – Since I didn’t end up making my dress I thought I could at least make my earrings! So I just used some yellow and orange polymer clay and earring hardware! Super easy!
3.) Liz (The Chameleon)- I found this generic chameleon figurine on amazon which worked great, but since Liz is a specific type of chameleon (Jackson’s Chameleon) and she has horns, I decided to just make my own. I used the same orange and yellow polymer clay and created three horns, of which I just glued onto the figurine with hot glue.

It’s so funny to think how full circle this costume is for me! I loved watching the Magic School Bus as a kid and now my girls love watching it too! They were absolutely giddy when they saw me all dressed up and kept referring to me as Ms. Frizzle all night long! lol

I am so excited we finally got to make this costume happen, and so thrilled with how it turned out! There truly is something special about nostalgic Halloween costumes! Stay tuned for what other costumes I have in store for 2025!